NY Times coverage of T-Mobile dual mode phone trial

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kurt Albershardt <[email protected]>
Date: December 15, 2006 10:27:50 AM JST
To: [email protected]
Subject: NY Times coverage of T-Mobile dual mode phone trial

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/technology/14basics.html>


December 14, 2006
Marrying the Cellphone to Cheap Internet Calling
By GLENN FLEISHMAN
SEATTLE

MATTHEW MILLER wanted to cut the cost of his cellphone plan. He and  
his wife, Dayna, had regularly exceeded their 2,000-minute-per-month  
T-Mobile family plan, incurring extra-use charges that reached $60  
some months.

With her home business and his daily commute of two and a half hours  
to his job in Seattle, they decided this year to move to the maximum  
3,000-minute plan. They spend another $20 a month for unlimited long- 
distance calling on their landline.

Mr. Miller, a columnist for Geek.com and ZDNet in his spare time, was  
therefore not surprised when T-Mobile asked the couple to join an  
early local test of a service that combines the ubiquity of cellular  
networks with the flat pricing for unlimited calls available with  
some Internet-based phone services.

The new service, HotSpot@Home, allows a subscriber to place calls  
from a mobile phone using cellular and Wi-Fi networks, whether a home  
wireless network or a hot spot operated by T-Mobile.

In my own testing, I found the service a reasonable first draft of  
what could become a reliable alternative to both all-cellular  
networks and an emerging set of Wi-Fi-only phones. The marriage might  
even save money — for both T-Mobile and its subscribers. Carrying  
calls over Wi-Fi networks costs the company as little as 20 percent  
of the expense of calls handled on a cellular network.

All calls originating on a Wi-Fi network to numbers in the United  
States are included in a monthly fee of $20 for a primary phone and  
$5 for additional phones in a family plan. The Wi-Fi plan must be  
coupled with a traditional voice cellular service plan of at least  
$40 a month.

Although T-Mobile introduced the service in late October, after the  
tests in which the Millers took part, the company allows subscribers  
to sign up only in the Seattle-Tacoma region, and only at corporate  
stores. The service can be used nationwide, however.

...